Dagestan

The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia located in the North Caucasus, with Makhachkala serving as its capital. Its name means "mountain land" in Persian, and the Safavids reconsolidated their rule over the region as Mongolian authority collapsed in the early 16th century. From 1741 to 1745, the Persian ruler Nader Shah annexed almost all of south Dagestan, but Lezgistan held out in northernmost Dagestan, resulting in the Persians later withdrawing. The Persians set up the Derbent Khanate in 1747, and it existed until 1806. In 1806, ten years after the Russian Empire briefly captured Derbent during a war with the Qajar dynasty, the Khanate voluntarily submitted to Russian authority. After the 1804-1813 Russo-Persian war, Russian rule over Dagestan was confirmed. From 1817 to 1864, Russia fought against North Caucasian rebels in the "Caucasian War", and Russia confirmed its rule over the region by crushing several uprisings. Dagestan was governed as the Dagestan ASSR under Soviet rule, and an Islamic insurgency broke out in the 1990s at the same time as the First Chechen War. Traditional Sufi groups advocating secularism fought against more recently introduced Salafist teachers advocating sharia law, and Dagestan was caught up in the North Caucasian insurgency. In 2010, Dagestan had a population of 2,910,249 people.